Family,

It was fun to read all the family missionary news this week.  

Maddie's call comes in a matter of days and Dallin is now home! 

Here is the missionary news from Osnabrück:

B*******!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

She is on baptismal date. December 6! She is so ready. The Lord has really prepared her. She is so excited to learn everything we have to teach her. She keeps every commitment and comes to everything the ward does. We have worked hard to integrate the members into the process. We always have a joint teach and the members have been inviting us all over for eating appoitnmetns and FHE. The ward is really excited. 

She is just so amazing and I am thankful for the opportunity I have to be here and help her gain her testimony.  It has strengthened mine. 

We will be having a white Christmas here in Osnabrcück!

I am so thankful for this 150 goal from President Kosak. It has really focused how we work. It has strengthened our faith. It has us praying for and expecting miracles. And we are seeing them every day!

We also met with G**** this week.  She could be baptism ready soon as well.  She is reading the Book of Mormon and loves meeting with us.  She always tells us how much fun we are to meet with.  Wrong!  That is the Spirit, Ginda.  We just come and sit on your couches and eat your cookies :)

Frau K******** came to church.  I have waited 4 transfers for that! 

We also had a really good lesson with L****. 

We are seeing progress here in Osnabrück!

We also got a member referral for Herr and Frau W******* so we visited them this week.  Turns out he has played violin since he was 12.  He has like 5 at his house.  We started talking about it and then he whipped them out and we started playing.  He pulled out a bunch of Bach and Mozart duets and we got to work.  Surprise jam sesh!!   Some of the songs he pulled our were familiar from Suzuki.  I never ever imagined as I practiced after school that one day I would be playing the exact same song in Osnabrück in a stranger's living room.  He invited us back and is preparing something for us to play at  the ward Christmas party.  

So there's that :)

That was pretty much our week!

I love you all!

Love,

Sister Brown

I have discovered why Pday is on Monday.

Last night I found myself in a zombie state waiting for the DL to call and get our numbers so I could finally crash in my bed.   After a day of  meetings, scheduling appointments, picking up investigators, teaching Sunday School classes, stressing about investigators coming to church, eating appointments, finding joint teaches, following up with members, and teaching appointments I was worn out.  Sunday is quite the production.  And we do it every week!  Without the hope that comes from knowing it is Pday Eve, we would never make it through!

This week was extra special too.  It was the mission farewell for Martin! There was Gemeinde Essen afterwards too so we had invited everyone. EVERYONE!  It was cool to have so many of the people we are working with show up.  It was a great meeting and the Spirit was there so strong.

A little while after the farewell and lunch we got to watch him be set apart.  It was so cool.  No, cool doesn't even begin to describe it.

It reminded me of my setting apart. It was such a speical experience to have all my family there. I was so excited to just get to Germany and share my testimony with everyone.  I just remember the Spirit confirming that what I was doing was right.  That I was making a good choice and that it would all be ok. 

Viel Glück Elder Wenke!  

I just have to tell you all about B******!  We met with her three times this week.  She is SO excited and eager to learn all we can teach her.   We invited her to baptism.  She accepted and is really working towards it.  She is coming to church every week.  She is reading the Book of Mormon and praying to gain her testimony.

On Sunday we showed her the font and the baptismal clothes.  She was planning it all out with us.  It is just amazing to see how prepared and ready she is.

We might just be having a white Christmas here in Osnabrück!  

Miracles!

This weekend is transfer calls.  This next transfer has Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, and my birthday.  It will be a party transfer.  I am anxious to find out where this partying will be taking place :)

I will let you know next week!

Bis Dann,

Sister Brown

So we went to the zoo last  week for Pday.  It was one of the coolest zoos ever.  It was incredibly interactive.  

Here are some pics from the goats.  You can climb right in with them.  It was a little scary because they were all fighting each other.  

This is just a glimpse of the adventures we had at the Rheine Zoo :)

We're halfway there

...Livin' on a prayer!

But for realsies.  It is a little heartfelt German prayer :)

This past week we hit November 6.  

Do you know what that means?!?  

I will tell you!

It means 9 months ago crazy Sister Brown walked into the MTC and put on a name tag.  This adventure is half way over!

I am still in Osnabrück and just loving it.  Being a missionary is just so great!  We are seeing miracles every day.  It has been amazing to see how the Lord will put His prepared children in places where we can find them, no matter how crazy those places may be! 

I am so glad I decided to serve a mission.  I think my favorite part has been all the wonderful people I have met.  I have had the opportunity to serve with amazing missionaries, companions, members, and investigators.

I love being able to watch people make changes in their lives.  I love seeing the happiness it brings them. The gospel is true and it changes lives!

I wanted to share what I have been learning. 

Alles Güte,

Sister Brown

PS thanks for all of the fun mail!  

We have that community mail box so all of our neighbors see our mail.  Recently I had a few wish me happy birthday.  I was confused at first, seeing as it isn't my birthday.  Then one neighbor explained that he keeps seeing fun cards for me, so he thought it was my birthday.  

No, neighbor, it isn't my birthday.  Those stickered colorful envelopes of happiness are just letters to a sister missionary from the best family in the world!

But I will gladly take the happy birthday wishes trotzdem :)

We are Family

So this week we had mission tour in Hamburg.  

We ended up leaving the night before and sleeping over with the Sisters in Langenhorn  because there were so many trains falling out because of the storm.  We didn't want to risk not being able to get to the meeting.  

So we traveled with the Elders the night before. 

Our second train was super late getting in so we ended up with some time to kill in Bremen.  We walked out of Bahnhof and stumbled into a magical carnival land waiting for us.  We walked through and saw roller coasters and games and food stands.  It was so fun.  

We did finally make it to Hamburg and the meeting was great.  It was fun to be with so many other missionaries too.

This week was Halloween!  It is pretty much nonexistent here in Deutschalnd but Sister Hayden and I kept the spirit alive.  We made little mummy hot dogs and eyeball Oreo truffles.  It was a lot of fun!  Who needs pumpkins or costumes?!?  :)

Oktober 31 is also Reformation Day.  That is celebrated here.  I didn't even know what it was. It is to celebrate the reformation of the church.  I was able to learn more about Martin Luther and what he did here in Germany.  He realized that there was corruption in the church and wanted to change it.  He translated the bible into German.  It is cool to see how God prepared men like the reformers to help set the stage for Joseph Smith.  I am blessed to have this experience to share the message of the Restoration in the language and land of the Reformation.

We saw miracles this week.  

One of them is named B******.  She was a referral we got from our GML.  He just called us up one  afternoon and said "Sisters, I have an appointment for you tomorrow at 10."  He gave us a name, number and address.  That was all we had.  We were both pretty nervous going into this appointment.  We knew nothing about this woman. 
It was a great lesson to me on teaching by the Spirit.  We explained what we do here on missions and then we read a little with her in the Book of Mormon.  We bore testimony and shared experiences.  The Spirit was definitely there.  Something caught her interest too because when we invited her to church she said she'd come.  

And she did.

It is cool to see how God puts his prepared children in the paths of His prepared missionaries.  We try  to find them on our own.  We talk to as many people as we can.  Sometimes we find them and other times they find us. 

So yeah, believe in miracles.

We do!

I love you all and wish you a happy week!
Love,
Sister Brown

Reunion with Sister Odenwalder!

 Mission Tour: Sister Brown and Sister Hayden

Waiting for our bus after visiting IKEA to buy hangers.  

It was pouring rain...